Rubio: 'Not even Tim Kaine is willing' to say he trusts Hillary Clinton

Republican Sen. Marco Rubio said Democrat U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy is in "rare company" by fully trusting Hillary Clinton.

The U.S. Senate candidates relentlessly attacked the other’s presidential party nominee at the U.S. Senate debate Oct. 17 in Orlando. After Murphy explained to the audience why he supports Clinton, Rubio fired back with an unsubstantiated claim about U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, the Democratic vice presidential nominee.

"If Congressman Murphy trusts Hillary Clinton 100 percent, he’s in rare company, because not even Tim Kaine is willing to say that," Rubio said, "and he’s her running mate."

His line got a few laughs, but a quick search of articles and transcripts refutes his point.

‘I trust Hillary Clinton with our son’s life’

Kaine accepted his party’s nomination to be vice president on July 27 during the Democratic National Convention, less than a week after Clinton announced him as her choice. In his speech, the Virginia senator and former Virginia governor vouched for Clinton’s character and urged voters to trust her.

"Hey, last week, last week in Cleveland we heard a lot about trust," Kaine said, referring to the Republican National Convention. "So let’s talk about trust. Let’s talk about trust. I want to tell you why I trust Hillary Clinton."

Kaine pointed to Clinton’s longtime work helping kids and families through her work on the Children’s Defense Fund, and added, "And on a personal level, as (Nat) is serving our nation abroad, I trust Hillary Clinton with our son’s life."

Kaine reiterated his trust more recently during the first question of the vice presidential debate on Oct. 7 about why he would be qualified to fill the position of president if need be.

"We trust Hillary Clinton, my wife and I, and we trust her with the most important thing in our life," Kaine said. "We have a son deployed overseas in the Marine Corps right now. We trust Hillary Clinton as president and commander in chief, but the thought of Donald Trump as commander in chief scares us to death."

With all of this talk about trust, we wondered what Rubio was talking about. His campaign sent PolitiFact Florida a news release exploring Kaine’s comments regarding Clinton’s trustworthiness, pointing to Kaine’s interview ABC’s The View in October.

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"During an appearance on The View, Tim Kaine would not say that Hillary Clinton is trustworthy when asked about ‘voters that have doubted her on the trust issues,’ reads the release.

Watch the clip for yourself. After we did, we found the press release was misleading — and Rubio’s interpretation was even more over the top.

Kaine doesn’t say he trusts Clinton, but he’s never explicitly asked if he does. He is probed about the internal emails released by Wikileaks, and how findings that Clinton might have received debate questions ahead of time affect the campaign, especially since Clinton has struggled with trust among voters.

"And we've seen that one of the issues that she's struggled with is this issue of trust. Does this support that?" The View co-host Jedediah Bila asked Kaine. "Or what do you say to voters that have doubted her on the trust issues and now see these things coming through via Wikileaks?"

Kaine told the audience that the Russian government was behind the Wikileaks, adding that "you can't automatically assume that everything in all of these documents are even real." He then went on to defend Clinton’s character, referencing her fight for health insurance for low-income children.

"Hillary Clinton has a passion from the time she was a kid in a Methodist youth group in the suburbs of Chicago," Kaine said. "Under the influence of this great guy named Don Jones, her passion has been empowering families and kids."

Our ruling

Rubio said that "not even Tim Kaine" is willing to say that he trusts Hillary Clinton.

This is wrong. Kaine has vocalized his trust of Clinton on multiple occasions, and there is no evidence suggesting Kaine doesn’t feel this way.

Rubio’s statement is not accurate and makes a ridiculous claim. Pants on Fire!

https://www.sharethefacts.co/share/4c4e4af7-c525-4473-ac44-8a893c216bea